Arizona -- Fiction; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Fiction; Western stories
The country became rough and broken almost at once. The trail led up
and down through draws and arroyos. There was little verdure save
cactus and, when the sun was fully up, Enoch began to realize that a
strenuous day was before him. The spring boasted a pepper tree, a
lovely thing of delicate foliage, gazing at itself in the mirrored blue
of the spring. Enoch allowed the horse to drink its fill, then he
unrolled the blankets and clothing and dropped them into the water
below the little falls that gushed over the rocks, anchoring them with
stones. After this, awkwardly, but recalling more and more clearly his
camping lore, he prepared a crude breakfast.
He sat long at this meal. His head felt a little light from the lack
of sleep and he was physically weary. But he could not rest. For days
a jingling couplet had been running through his mind:
"Rest is not quitting this busy career.
Rest is the fitting of self to one's sphere."
Enoch muttered this aloud, then smiled grimly to himself.
"That's the idea!" he added. "There's a bad spot somewhere in my
philosophy that'll break me yet. Well, we'll see if I can locate it."
The sun was climbing high and the shade of the pepper tree was
grateful. The spring murmured for a few feet beyond the last quivering
shadow of the feathery leaves, then was swallowed abruptly by the
burning sand. Enoch lifted his tired eyes. Far on every side lay the
uneven, rock strewn desert floor, dotted with cactus and greasewood.
To the east, vivid against the blue sky, rose a solitary mountain peak,
a true purple in color, capped with snow. To the north, a green black
shadow was etched against the horizon. Except for the slight rustle of
the pepper tree, the vague murmur of the water, the silence was
complete.
"It's not a calming atmosphere," thought Enoch, "as I remember the
Canyon to have been. It's feverish and restless. But I'll give it a
try. For to-day, I'll not think. I'll concern myself entirely with
getting to this Navajo camp. First of all, I'll dry the blankets and
clothing."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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